Computer-Related Phone Scams: How to Spot Them, What to Do If Affected

Today’s connected world provides us with multiple ways to interact with others. Social media platforms, text messages, websites — even good ol’ email provide fraudsters with a variety of avenues to identify their next victim. That level of sophistication makes this latest scam look like a bit of a throwback — rather than using scary looking pop-up windows or threatening text messages — it involves contacting the victim by phone.

Yeah, I know… weird…

The scammers call potential victims and say that, if the person answering the phone has ever paid for tech support services, they may be able to get a refund. We are a bit sensitive about this (being in the tech support business and all), and suggest you take a look at the post about it on the FTC’s blog:

Often, the best way to defend oneself from scams (without veering into tin-foil hat territory) is to scan the top security blogs (Sophos’ Naked Security blog, Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center and Krebs on Security, among others) to get a sense of what’s trending. Another helpful tip: be very careful who you give your financial information to (and NEVER through email or by phone). No matter how legitimate they seem, if they ask for your bank account number, it’s a red flag. (That’s the way a lot of scams play out.) It pays to be skeptical.

If you ever find yourself a victim of a scam like this one, the first thing you should do is call your bank and suspend activity on the account affected. Then you should contact the local authorities, or file a complaint with the FTC at their website.